Constituency in Cup'ik and the problem of holophrasis

In Unangan-Yupik-Inuit (UYI) languages, Words are traditionally analyzed as a single Base lexeme, then zero to many Postbases (derivational suffix units), and then inflection according to word class. Since both Bases and Postbases are lexemes that may have concrete meaning, the resulting Word can be phrase-like (holophrastic) even though the languages have no compounding. We evaluate this analysis for verb-headed clauses in Cup'ik, a Central Alaskan Yupik variety, by examining and measuring constituency in the program of the present volume. This yields significant grammatical and phonological confirmation of the traditional Word unit; but the program assumes that the Verb Base will be the single, lexically-dense verb core in a clause, thus not gauging holophrasis, the grouping of multiple lexically-dense elements within a single Word or how such elements might project constituency within or beyond the traditional Word. It is argued that a more complete assay of wordhood within this program must gauge lexical and grammatical contributions to the clause element by element, regardless of Base status. In that way, the program would detect and measure holophrasis as a significant typological dimension along which UYI languages would occupy an extreme position.